La WWE ha smesso di mandare in onda Raw Underground, almeno per il momento, probabilmente a causa dell’elevato numero di atleti di diversi brand che interagivano tra loro, comportamento evitabile nei tempi di una pandemia globale. Molti hanno gradito la chiusura del segmento, altri no. Ma c’è qualcuno che ne rivendica la paternità.

Come “Wayne’s World”

EC3 è stato recentemente ospite del podcast ROHStrong, dove ha detto che la WWE ha preso l’idea di Raw Underground da lui, e l’hanno cambiata in qualcosa di diverso da ciò che avrebbe dovuto essere, mettendo la sua idea in uno “studio artefatto, desolato e senza un cuore”. EC3 ha paragonato Raw Underground al film “Fusi di Testa”, in lingua originale conosciuto come “Wayne’s World”:

“I knew it was going to be stolen, so I was prepared for it. I didn’t know it’d go to that length, and I know mine played to a minor bubble of the professional wrestling audience while majority of it saw whatever the hell they put out there. The way I look at it is kind of like I was Wayne’s World. I was producing this show in Aurora, my basement with my buddy Garth. We’ll call him J.C. in this instance, and then Rob Lowe came in, bought us and when I saw Shane McMahon in the ring, not in a real underground, mine was a real underground. [This] manufactured, heartless, desolate studio, I’m looking at Shane and it felt like when Noah was wrapping on Wayne’s World after they bought him out. It was just inauthentic and like I said, it had no heart. So I knew something would’ve been taken from it. I didn’t expect the whole aesthetic, and while it upset my friend, J.C. who I worked very hard on with it, at the same time, it’s just a challenge to do something different, better next time which I definitely plan on doing because again, control your narrative, again, Ring of Honor provides freedom. I’m not tied to doing just that. There’s things I want to do in the future and continue that narrative as sort of supplemental content to whatever other places I’m doing things in and I have bold, ambitious views for it. We’ll see if it works out, I think it will”.

C’è anche un’altra teoria secondo cui la WWE abbia avuto questa idea dalla scena indie dell’area di Detroit, chiamata Sanctuary Fight Club, che letteralmente usa “Welcome to the Underground” come slogan. A molti non importa chi abbia avuto per primo l’idea di Raw Underground, a maggior ragione ora che è stato sospeso. Di certo EC3, oggi come oggi, non è un fan di qualsiasi prodotto made in Stamford.